Amateur film criticism

Main Menu

The Transporter (France, 2002)

Directed by: Corey Yuen. As with Taken, I always meant to take a look at this brand of Luc Besson-led European dumb-guy action film starring a British lead. When this first came out, I had only just become acquainted with Jason Statham from the Guy Ritchie films, I was only just getting used to “edgy” independent, non-Hollywood, non-action movies (which in hindsight, Guy Ritchie wasn’t that far away from, but regardless) and when I saw the ads for this car-chase movie, I probably wrote it off as another dumb-guy Fast and Furious flick and skipped it. But now, here we are, and Jason Statham has decided to make this kind of thing his career, and here I am, I still really like the guy and I want to see some of his stuff (and a crazy part of me wants to see all of this stuff). This movie was exactly what I thought it would be, but a little less good than I was hoping it would be. The villain was pretty cartoony, and the whole look of this thing was a little bit afternoon-TV if you know what I mean. But the suits were crisp, the cars fast, and the martial arts sequences were really exciting. In an action movie, what more do you want than a lot of really well-choreographed, well-shot, extended fight scenes? God help me, I think I might have to see all of these damn things.